AHS failing to reach health care targets: Alberta Liberals

An internal performance report obtained by the Alberta Liberals shows that the province is failing to meet targets in health care, party leader Raj Sherman said Monday.

According to the first quarterly report from Alberta Health Services, the wait time for urgent bypass surgery was 2.2 weeks, an increase of nearly a week over first quarter numbers in the previous year.

The report shows that in June 2013, there were 510 people in hospital waiting for placement in continuing care facilities, compared to 459 in June 2012.

The Liberals only obtained the report after making a Freedom of Information request.

"Health care spending has skyrocketed,” Sherman said. “Mismanagement is the problem and the government is hiding the data from the public.”

Alberta Health Services recently changed how it publicly reports data in a move it believes will make it easier to interpret.

The measurements use more averages with no raw numbers.

But Sherman says that method offers a skewed view of what’s really happening and shows the Redford government in more interested in spinning the numbers.

"It doesn't tell you how many patients are waiting in what hospital, in what region,” he says.

Meanwhile, the report the Liberals obtained through Freedom of Information is available internally within the government, Sherman said.